The Repackage

Today we’re going to look at some of the memorable repackagings (repackings? repackages?) of wrestlers over the years – Some memorable, some forgettable.

Just for those who aren’t totally clear on what it means when a wrestler is repackaged, basically it’s when you’ve got a wrestler whose character has grown stale with the audience, or a character that just sucked from the get go, and you change that wrestler’s character into something new, something different. Often with the new character comes a new name, a new style and a new personality. It’s basically just a makeover, ramped up to 1000.

The repackage is an wonderful tool the wrestling industry has at it’s disposal. It’s something that can’t really be done in other areas of sports or entertainment. If a character on a TV show becomes stale or unbearable, the character would be cut from the show – either killed off or sent off to college or something. Rarely would you see the cut character’s actor back on the same show as a completely different character, though it’s probably been done. Imagine if Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones was written out of the series, then the following week Peter Dinklage is back on the show playing The Prince of the White Walkers. (Sorry if I just butchered GOT)

You could say the movie version of the repackage is the reboot. Tired of this version of Batman? Here, have a new one! Remember Robocop? Here, watch this new, crappy interpretation! The idea is similar, but it’s not quite the same. A movie reboot is the the same characters played by new actors, whereas a repackage is a new character played by the same wrestler you’ve seen before.

Now that I think of it, I guess James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes in the Iron man movie series was played by two different actors. Must have something to do with the Rhodes name.

Repackage!

Well, that’s enough explaining. Let’s get to the fun part! Here is a list of five memorable repackagings in no particular order. Some were great ideas, others not. Let’s begin with a newbie and a goody:

Tata, Leo Kruger!

Hey there, Adam Rose!

This repackaging happened only last week (at the time of writing). Leo Kruger was the Kraven-esque South African hunter, a villain basically ripped straight out of the pages of Spider-Man. On paper that sounds pretty great! And it was! Kruger had a lot of personality and natural charisma and his promos were pretty cool. The problem with him was when his matches started, all the interesting things about him disappeared, leaving behind a fairly average wrestler in the ring. And though it’s only been one week, the same pretty much goes for Adam Rose. Incredible character outside the ring, normal wrestler inside. Though I do like his rolling around. is that a finisher?

If Adam can match his personality to his in ring ability he’ll soon become my favourite wrestler, because Adam Rose the character is the best! And if just does that ring entrance every week, I’ll be happy!